The Survivor
by Nythtak
Summary: Even before the FAYZ, surviving had been what was most important to her. If that resulted in the sacrifice or others, then that was irrelevant. The development of her own powers merely aided that, though the results may change everything...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

There was no warning.

One second the history teacher was standing at the front of the room, giving a lecture on the Civil War that Artemis Tavian was only half paying attention to. The next second he was gone.

Completely vanished, as if he'd never been there to begin with. He had been in the middle of a sentence, an excited look on his plain face as he talked obliviously to the mostly daydreaming students, and then he was gone.

No flash of light, no explosion, no gradual shift from being 'there' to 'not there'. Nothing except the empty space where Mr. Trentlake had been standing.

Artemis tensed and straightened up from her slouched seating position, dark green eyes wide. They abruptly narrowed, flickering from one end of the room to the other. A pale hand reached up to brush a piece of black hair from her face as she continued to examine the room, looking for a possible explanation (_and a threat. What did this? Was it dangerous? How to fight it kill it escape it- three windows one doorway an air vent) _for the man's disappearance.

Briefly, she considered the idea that it might have just been her imagination, before it was dismissed. The other teens in the room were staring in shocked silence at the front of the room, some frozen in the middle of a whispered conversation or doodling on a piece of paper (_two seats forward one left – talking to the boy next to him – three to the right two forward – staring through the window)_, and each of them now looking at the place their teacher was previously standing.

She noted that one boy was missing; Josh Ainsworth, who had been reading a comic for the past ten minutes. The only fifteen year old in the class.

She watched them warily, assessing them (_were they dangerous? Could they have done it?), _but none of them had ever done anything threatening before, certainly nothing of this magnitude. They were children, dependant and largely useless without adults to direct them.

Of course, there were some exceptions. Samuel Temple, as famous as anyone could get in the small town, having earned the nickname 'School Bus Sam'. In seventh grade he saved the people on his bus by taking control of it when the driver had a heart attack.

She hadn't been on the bus, but the story had spread quickly throughout the school, and Temple had even been in the local paper. But, he had faded back into the background soon enough, though she predicted that if the need arose he would quickly take up the 'hero' mantle again.

He was the first to speak, turning to the girl next to him as the rest of the class listened in. "You saw that, right?"

It was Mary Terrafino, she could see from the back of the classroom, who was still staring at the spot where their teacher had been. Artemis was grateful she always aimed to sit at the back, close to the window. It meant she could watch everyone without turning around or bringing attention to herself, and provide herself with accessible of escape routes.

She was well aware of how this reasoning would sound to others, but had long since come to terms with her general paranoid nature, adapting accordingly. It was not like there was any harm of being suspicious of others. In fact, she though amusedly, it was probably one of the more positive aspects of her personality.

Terrafino hadn't replied, eyes fixated towards the front and body frozen, similar to some of the other teens in the room.

"Um, where's Mr. Trentlake?" asked the boy who sat right behind Temple. He was Quinn Gaither, best friend of Temple and a slightly odd but average student. Artemis made it a habit to memorise the names and any other useful information of those she met. She may need them one day.

"He must have left," Terrafino finally said, though she didn't sound like she believed it. Artemis didn't either. There was no way he had just 'left', he had disappeared too quickly for that. No, something must have happened to him. What, though?

Edilio Escobar, an immigrant from Honduras (illegal, perhaps?) as he had repeated enough times for Artemis to know about it, since many people mistook him for Mexican, spoke next, "No, man. Poof." He wiggled his fingers in what she thought was unfortunately a rather accurate representation of the concept.

Artemis leaned her chin in the palm of her hand. Many of the kids around her were craning their heads to look at each other, giggling nervously. No one was scared, or worried. It seemed funny to them. They weren't panicking.

She thought they should be, though it would happen soon enough when they realized the severity of the situation. Then again, she herself was only just coming to terms with it. Her mind whirred with the possibilities of what could be happening, and why, each more ridiculous than the next. Aliens? Magic? Superpowers? Some kind of experiment? Or was some lame celebrity going to jump out from behind the desk and yell "Gotcha!", claiming that the class had unknowingly starred in some inane new show?

But no, that couldn't be possible. No amount of special effects could cause a grown human to spontaneously disappear, and she wasn't aware of any technology that could do this either. It was something else, but she just didn't know _what._

"Mr Trentlake poofed?" said Gaither, a suppressed giggle in his voice and a grin on his face. Some of the others chuckled with him, evidently finding the term hilarious.

"Hey," someone said, their face blocked from her view by the girl in front of her, "where's Josh?"

So they finally noticed. Heads turned to look, as if Ainsworth was hiding from them and would reveal himself.

"Was he here today?"

"Yes, he was here. He was right here next to me." Bette Paton, also known as Bouncing Bette, for reasons unknown to Artemis, said. "He just, you know, disappeared. Just like Mr. Trentlake."

So it wasn't just a one off. Had more people disappeared throughout the school, even the whole town? And why was it only those two? As far as she could tell, the teacher and student had nothing in common. They weren't related. They didn't know each other personally. What was the connection?

The door to the hallway opened, and every eye locked on it. Maybe it would be Mr. Trentlake and Ainsworth, explaining teasingly how they had managed to pull of the magic trick. But, her mind pointed out, what was the point in such a trick? Neither had shown any inclination to magic tricks or the like, and it made no sense to do so randomly during a History lesson.

It was neither male, but instead another confused and frightened student. Astrid Ellison stood in the doorway, the proclaimed smartest girl in the school, Astrid the Genius, seemingly as stumped as they were by the event. Tall, blonde and blue eyed, with intelligence surpassing many adults, she was both envied and admired by many children, subject of more than a few crushes. Artemis didn't like her much, but nor did she hate her. Then again, this was the opinion she had of the vast majority of the people she had met.

"Where's your teacher?" Ellison asked, normally sharp eyes wide with fright. She looked on the verge of panic, and Artemis could nearly see the well-honed cogs in her mind turning. A sardonic smile crept onto her lips as she wondered what conclusion the supposed Genius would come to.

It fell back into a blank expression as she tried to come up with her own. Hopefully, Ellison would shed some light on the situation, as much as it irritated her to rely on another. Although, once she had gotten as much information as she could from those around her, she would see what she herself could figure out.

Most of the class replied in response, herself not included. Ellison appeared even more unnerved, a frown on her face and eyes scanning the room, finally landing on Gaither as he gave an answer.

"He poofed," he said, smile wavering. She wondered if he realized how the 'poofed' joke wasn't funny any more, how the room was beginning gain a more nervous edge.

"Isn't he out in the hallway?" Terrafino asked, brow furrowing. A stupid question; Ellison wouldn't have asked where he was if she had seen him.

Ellison shook her head. "Something weird is happening. My math study group...there were just three of us, plus the teacher. They all just disappeared."

Her maths group...Ellison was in all the AP classes the school had to offer, which meant she was often with teens older than herself. Ainsworth was the oldest child in the class at fifteen, everyone else was fourteen, and their teacher was obviously older than that. Slowly, the pieces if the puzzle began to fit together...

"What?" Temple said, turning the blonde girl's attention to him.

She found herself amused as a very slight, near unnoticeable, blush crept onto Temple's face. His face quickly paled at Ellison's next words, along with those paying attention (the majority) to the conversation. "They're gone. They all just...disappeared."

"What about your teacher?" Escobar asked.

"She's gone, too," she replied.

"Gone?"

"Poof," Gaither repeated, not giggling so much now.

Artemis rolled her eyes and stood up, making her way to the door. Several teenagers turned to look at her, but she ignored them and walked outside into the hallway. No one moved to stop her, but she noticed Temple, followed by Ellison and Gaither, walk out after her.

To the right, room 213, a kid stuck out his head, wearing a half-giddy, half-scared expression. She guessed that his teacher was also gone, and by the sounds of excited children coming from the other classrooms, his wasn't the only one.

Fifth graders down the hall laughing loudly. Three sixth graders across the hall burst out into the hallway, stopping dead at the sight of Artemis and her classmates, guilty expression on their faces. She ignored them, turning left and peering into 211, Ellison's room.

It was empty, as she had expected. Math books and notebooks lay open on the desks, and a row of six computers all showed flickering blank screens. Whatever was happening, it was affecting the electronics too. She reached into her cargo pants pocket, pulling out a cheap Nokia and calling the first number on her contacts, only to have no answer, confirming her theory.

She headed back out into the hall, leaving Temple and his followers to investigate. She could hear them talking about how the teacher and students had disappeared, stating what she thought was obvious. Whatever was happening, it was far from a singular event.

Someone screamed, causing Artemis to jump. Her head immediately turned in the girl's direction, frowning in irritation. Her instincts hadn't indicated that there was any immediate danger, so what could possibly warrant screaming?

It was a sixth grader named Becka Freeman, clutching her cell phone. "There's no answer. There's no answer!" she cried, "There's nothing."

For a moment everyone froze. Then, a flurry of rustles and clattering, followed by the dialling of numerous keypads. Artemis almost wanted to laugh at how they only realized how serious this was when their precious cells failed to work.

"It's not doing anything."

"My mom would be home, she would answer. It's not even ringing."

"Oh, my God: there's no internet, either. I have a signal, but there's nothing."

"I have three bars."

"Me too, but it's not there."

Someone started wailing pathetically. Artemis gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to shut them up, violently. It got harder as the chattering escalated to yelling.

"Try 911," a scared voice demanded.

"Who do you think I called, numbnuts?"

She sighed, tuning out the various comments people were making. This was really going nowhere. She could feel herself becoming impatient, nervous energy building up in the drive to _do something._

The alarm bell rang, an explosion of noise. She flinched, not the only one surprised by the loud and familiar sound. It seemed especially loud in the near silent hallway.

Wait. Silent?

She briefly wanted to hit herself for not noticing earlier. From within the school you could usually hear the sounds of cars driving by, and people talking as they walked on the pavement. But now, there was nothing, except for car alarms blaring distantly.

Brow furrowed, she hurried over to the window as everyone began to disperse. There was one down another hall, facing out onto the road. Pushing back the blinds she peered out, a sigh escaping her.

Predictably, the usually relatively busy street was empty of any over fifteens. Near the centre of the road two cars had slammed into each other, neither driver visible in their seats or nearby. A bike lay abandoned on its side close to the traffic lights, some shopping bags dropped on the pavement and car alarms blaring. Further down she could see a stroller with the toddler still inside, its wailing faint through the glass windows.

Turning and leaning against the wall, she closed her eyes. It was obvious what had happened; everyone over the age of fifteen, it seemed, was gone. Where to, and why, she didn't know. Had they, ordinary people going through the motions of another day, simply been dumped somewhere? But why, what possible reason could there be to do this?

She sighed. The most important thing; what was she going to do now?

Home. Or, at least the place that constituted as what most people thought of at home. Nick should be there, since he worked nights at the nuclear plant and would probably be asleep about now. Though, if the disappearances were as she thought they were, he wouldn't be there. If not, then...

She'd take it from there, follow her instincts like she always did. Do whatever she could to survive this.

Green eyes snapped open, murky depths hiding an unidentifiable emotion, and a smirk crossed her face.

"Who knows," she murmured, tone lower and hoarser that would seem to fit her delicate features, "Maybe it'll be interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

oOo

_Run._

_She has to run. He's gaining on her, larger frame an advantage to her small, weak one. Would be stronger, but she hasn't eaten in so long. The man had money, and money meant food. But he saw her._

_He's going to get her._

_No! No, keep running, faster faster faster!_

_Round a corner. Jump! Over a box. He stumbles and curses. Grin. Dive into the crowd. Left. Right. Left. Duck! Left again!_

_A side alley. Run, leap over the bin. Keep going! Almost there..._

_Pain! Bottle strikes the back of her head. She trips and falls, balance gone._

"_Ha! Got you, you little thief!"_

_No no no! Get up, get up! _

_Can't, dizzy. Fall again. Ow, ow, hurts. Hurts too much._

_A hand, large and calloused around her throat. Back against the wall._

_Can't breathe! Can't...can't..._

_Help!_

"_Hey! What are you doing? Get off her!"_

_Crack! _

_Loud noise, bad man run away._

"_-You okay? Stay with me!" _

_Brown hair. Blue eyes. Young boy, but older than her. _

"_Uh, listen to my voice, yeah? You probably have a concussion, so you need to stay awake, at least until I can get you to Lizzie. She's patch you up. I'm Nick...guess you don't really care, huh? What's your name?"_

"_Don't...have...name." She had never seen a need for a name. Who was there to call her it?_

"_Oh, um, why don't I give you a name? I can't just call you girl all the time."_

"_O...kay." It was best to agree with him, at least whilst she was injured. _

"_Good! Uh...let me think. Ah ha! How 'bout Artemis? Always liked that name. Its the goddess of the moon and hunting, or something. Eh, I think it sounds kinda cool."_

"_I...like it." She didn't care._

"_That's good, and- hey! Don't you close your eyes! Stay-"_

oOo

Artemis left the school quickly enough, pushing open the doors with one hand and peering around.

Outside was chaos. Loud yells and screams assaulting her hearing, tears streaming down many of the children's faces. Flashes of colour as some ran past her, likely heading to their homes in search of family.

She cringed and shook her head, ignoring the building headache as best she could. She had never liked loud noises or vibrant colours, and had a strong aversion to crowds. Pulling up her dark grey hood, shadowing her face, she set out again.

Artemis automatically adopted the run she used for lengthy distances. Long strides which ate up the ground, but with enough manoeuvrability to dart around any kids who were in her way. Cars, too, which sat in the middle of streets or had crashed, with the noticeable absence of drivers, even dead ones. There may have been children in the back or passenger seat, but they were hardly her responsibility. Let someone who cared worry about them.

Children were pouring out of the school. The younger ones had clumped together in small groups, taking strength from their numbers. They sat at the edges of the street, looking around with lost faces. Brothers, sisters and friends huddled together. Some walked around, calling for their parents or siblings. A lot of them were crying, especially the younger girls, who walked around hugging each other for comfort.

Artemis thought the way they were acting was rather ridiculous. Then again, they were better than the groups of older children – boys, mostly – who obviously thought the whole thing was a right laugh. They were running through the streets, some already breaking into homes whilst others gathered together, smirks on their faces, though she thought she caught an undercurrent of fear in their eyes.

But they didn't matter to her. All that mattered was getting home and checking to see if Nick was there, or if he's 'poofed' with the rest of the over fifteens. She could work from there.

…

Their home was down the highway, past Coates Academy and near some agricultural land. Coates was a private, elite boarding school. However, most people knew of it as where rich parents sent troubled or 'difficult' children.

The kids in Perdido Beach seemed to have some sort of rivalry with them, and referred to the place as a 'dumping ground for problem children'. It was rather accurate, as far as she could tell, as she had heard about some of the reasons kids were sent there, and it was widely regarded as having dangerous pupils.

Artemis herself had never been there, or met any of those who attended, but if Coates's sports stadium lights were on, the school was sometimes visible from the right view. It was certainly a depressing looking place, all grey walls and imposing gates. She could also see why it had earned the nickname 'The Fear Factory', by looks alone.

Nick and Artemis lived largely apart from the Perdido Beach community, which was just fine by them. Any initial welcomes when they first arrived had been abruptly, though politely, declined, and people had thankfully gotten the message.

Unlike many her age, Artemis didn't feel the need to be popular, or honestly have any friends. She was antisocial to the extreme, though the occasional company of Nick was tolerated, largely due to her gratitude to him.

Besides, she needed him. Without Nick she would probably be back on the streets, or in foster care, which was worse in her opinion. Nick provided a place to stay, food and education. It was enough to convince her to stay with him.

She stopped, looking down the highway. She had left the other under fifteen's far behind; all of them seemed to be gathering in the Town Plaza, from what she had seen, or heading to their homes. No one was this far out though.

She considered the distance from here to Nick's place. It would take her a long time to get to the house, time she just didn't have.

At the side of the road was a small car which seemed to have rolled to a stop when the driver had poofed, not crashing as many of the others did since the highway was so straight. Jogging over to it, she could hear that the engine was still running.

Yanking the door open she sat down on the seat, thankful that Nick had taught her how to drive, after much pestering, the beat-down truck he owned. The car was at least similar in control, and before too long she was driving steadily down the highway. Too slow, in her opinion, but it was at least faster than she was, and she wouldn't be tired out at the end of the trip.

She usually walked to school, getting up earlier than most kids to be there on time. It didn't matter too much; she didn't sleep for long anyway, managing to feel rested from even the shortest sleeps. Lately she had been sleeping less and less, until it was little more than a few hours. She wondered if it would eventually be that she didn't need it at all.

It wasn't just that. Food she'd been eating less of, drinking less, yet she wasn't loosing weight. In fact, if anything, she seemed to be getting _heavier, _though not visibly. Eating and drinking just felt...wrong, to her, as if she was trying to eat dirt instead of a sandwich, drinking oil instead of water.

She still needed both, as evident by pangs of hunger, but they were becoming less common, until she was only having one small meal a day. Nick didn't know, but they rarely saw each other due to his work hours and her lack of need for conversation, so he had no chance to find out.

Honestly, she felt more hungry looking at living creatures than she did even the most delicious food. This had both worried and scared her a bit at first, before it was dismissed as unimportant. It wasn't as if she felt an uncontrollable urge to _eat _people, so it was hardly a problem. She was just a little more...fond of meat than most people.

As she drove by she glanced up at the lane leading to Coates. The school was set on the top of a hill, the road up to it steep and winding, possibly meant to add to its illusion of grandeur. She wondered how they were handling the situation of no adults. The students were supposedly more intelligent than the majority of those of Perdido Beach, but they were also more isolated. Though, due to the lack of parents caring for them, they were probably more independent and capable of looking after themselves.

She didn't bother questioning if the adults had even disappeared from there. By the abandoned cars on the road ahead and behind her, it was obviously a widespread thing. She just needed to figure out _how _widespread.

Soon enough, the turning for Nick's place came up. She followed the barely there track up to where she lived, keeping an eye out for any other living creatures – human or otherwise. The path was partially obscured by trees and bushes, which were starting to become rarer as she drew nearer to the desert.

Finally she arrived at the end, barely stopping to turn off the engine before getting out of the car and running to the door. Nick and herself lived in a small, two bedroomed cabin, which had been patched up from a collapsing wreck to somewhat liveable conditions by Nick. The wooden walls were old, looking unstable enough to be considered dangerous, even if you knew about the various work Nick had done to make sure it wouldn't fall down on top of them.

Artemis had been sceptical of living there at first, sure that it wouldn't last its first storm, but it had so-far held. The plain green curtains were visible through a wide window, and the dull brown door obviously wasn't part of the original design.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to satisfy both occupants.

Nick's dull red truck was parked outside, indicating that Nick was home. She grabbed the key from her pocket and stuck it in the lock, movements stiff and hurried. She wasn't sure whether she was worried or not, but she knew that she needed to find out if Nick was here or not.

The door opened with a creek, loud in the quiet clearing, and she slammed it shut behind her. Taking several steps inside, she strained her hearing for the sound of Nick's snoring; he would be asleep around this time.

The inside of the cabin was a mismatch of the original, that was still in good enough condition, furniture and design, and what Nick had chosen himself. A lot of the newer items were either stolen or from junk yards that he had been able to raid, the first with Artemis' help.

There were six only rooms; two bedrooms, a living room (where she was now standing), a kitchen, a garage and the basement. The living room was sparsely decorated, two second-hand couches in the centre of the room facing a relatively new television that Nick had saved up enough money to buy, though it was still one of the cheaper kinds. A pile of DVDs lay on the floor beside it, all of them Nick's.

The bedrooms were almost identical to each other; a single bed, wardrobe, small window and cheap wooden desk with a chair. However, Nick's was much more personal than her own, clothes littering the floor and a pile of car magazines on the desk. Several bits and pieces of junk he had picked up and decided to keep lined the window ledge, a faded, black leather bomber jacket hanging on the back of the chair.

Artemis' eyes fell on the bed, a dejected sigh escaping her. The covers were rumpled, as if someone had just been laying there, an indent still visible in the pillow from where a head had been. Nick was gone, along with the rest of the over fifteens.

Half-heartedly she called out his name, just in case he was in the garage or another room, "Nick!"

Hearing no reply she moved into the sitting room, collapsing on the couch and resting her head on the back. She needed a plan, needed to figure out what she was going to do next. This was how she did things; going through her life step by step. She didn't like planning too far into the future, knowing that it only took one variable for everything to change.

How could she turn this situation to her advantage? There were no adults. No laws, no authority figures, no punishment. She needed to figure out how she could use this.

But first, she needed to find out how far this extended, if it was just the area around Perdido Beach or the entire world. Piece together what she knew, be sure of it – don't assume anything. Treat it as some kind of experiment or research. Find out the extent of what had happened, focus on the hows and whys later. Go from there.

With a decisive nod she stood up and walked back out of the door, grabbing the trucks keys from the chipped bowl on a low table near the doorway. She locked the door behind her, though she doubted anyone would venture this far out, or even bother to try breaking in. It wasn't as if the place looked to have any valuables to steal.

Moving at a slight job she opened the door and leapt into the seat, turning the key. The engine started with a loud rumble, stuttering slightly before evening out. The truck had been backed into the drive, so it was easy enough driving down the slim lane and back onto the highway, being careful not to clip the trees on either side.

She wondered how the other kids were coping. Were they panicking, desperately looking for their parents and older siblings? Or were they causing chaos, breaking into homes and destroying everything they could get their hands on?

But it didn't matter. They had nothing to do with her, unless they provided a threat to her existence. Then, and only then, she'd react.


End file.
